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JimC

wrote:

JimC wrote:

Obviously, you have no knowledge of the design and construction of the
Mac 26M.

Obviously, you have no knowledge of what I know. Is the vigorous
assertion of other's ignorance your only evidence that you know
anything at all, much less about sailing?

.... In contrast to your assertion, it is made with multiple
fiberglas-resin layups, NOT CHOPPER GUNS.

WOW! "Multiple fiberglas-resin layups" ?!? Does that mean it has,
like, more than one layer of fiberglass? Amazing technological
breakthrough!

BTW if you look at the video of the Mac 26M being built, you will see
a guy with a bunny suit & a respirator with no cartridges using a
chopper gun. IIRC the announcer is talking about fiberglass lay-ups
while showing this, maybe that's where you get the idea.

Actually, using a chopper gun is not a bad way to add stiffness to a
fiberglass structure. Used *between* layers of cloth/roving, it
functions in much the same manner as a core material, but with better
cross-linking. And it adds a lot of weight.

The reason why chopper gun laminations have such a bad rap is mainly
years of boat advertisement saying how bad it is, of course we don't
use it.

You seem to be forgetting the note to which I was responding, in which
it was inferred that the Mac's were constructed of "un cored fiberglass,
with a high proportion of chopper gun." [sic]. This is misleading in
that the Macs are formed with fiberglass layers laid in place by hand,
not strands of fiber and resin sprayed by "chopper guns." To quote the
MacGregor description:

"The MacGregor 26 is built to outlast all of us. Each boat is built of
individual layers of fiberglass fabrics, laid in place by hand, in a
carefully controlled process. Hulls and decks are light, but strong,
with extra reinforcement at all high stress points.

Most of our competitors use "chopper guns" to build their boats. These
are devices for spraying a mixture of resin and very short strands of
fiberglass. We don't use them, even though they reduce cost. They do
not, in our opinion, give adequate impact strength or controllable hull
and deck thickness. They result in heavy laminates with low fiberglass
to resin ratios."

Now, if you think MacGregor is lying about this matter, and that you can
support your assertion with the video, then there might be grounds for
bringing legal action against MacGregor. - But I'm not holding my
breath on that.

As to whether or not one method is better than the other, I strongly
suspect that most on this ng would not prefer that the hulls of their
particular boats be constructed by the "chopper gun" method.

... And many Mac 26 owners (in
the US and in foreign waters) have taken their boats offshore.

Do tell.
How many have sailed their boats through 40+ knot winds and 10'+
breaking seas?
I bet.... none!

... Yet so far, no one (on this ng or on the
Mac owners ng) has even heard of ANY Mac26 breaking up and sinking, in
heavy weather conditions, collisions, or other forms of stress.

Well, you of course will insist this can't possibly be true, but I
know of two Mac 26X/Ms having structural failure due to fairly normal
stress. No wait, three.
1- rested on an anchor at low tide, ripping a large hole in the hull.
This was only into the ballast tank, so the boat refloated just fine
when the tide came back in. However, the boat sailed even worse than
before.
2- hit an unknown floating object, tearing rudder off the transom. Due
to lack of backing plates, the holes where the bolts pulled thru were
small. Darn clever, those Mac engineers!
3- bumped repeatedly against dock in brief squall, cracking topsides
and opening seam along hull/deck joint.

None of these boats sank, it's true. But they all needed major repair
before "sailing" again. Two were sold immediately afterwards by the
owenrs... hey, maybe this explains why you don't hear about it on the
Mac-Crack-Cult-Gathering discussion forums.

DSK

If you can remember, DSK, the discussion began with reference to Joe's
tragic heavy weather situation, not with reference to impacts with a
dock, anchor, submerged object, or the like. Nevertheless, as you
helpfully note, in each of your examples (and, of course, we have little
direct information about the specific circumstances), the boats DID NOT
SINK, and NO CREW OR SKIPPERS were lost.

Thanks for proving my point.

Jim